Infectious
Diseases Modeling at Dynamics Technology, Inc.

There
is a great interest these days in the temporal dynamics and
geographic spread of infectious diseases, especially diseases
that are potential bioterrorism threats, such as plague, smallpox
and tularemia (see http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Agentlist.asp
for a list of identified threats). At Dynamics Technology,
Inc., we have been developing and analyzing mathematical models
of the spread of infectious diseases, especially plague and
Rift Valley Fever. Our models, which are coupled systems of
nonlinear ODEs, allow for interactions between several species
(humans, rodents and fleas in the case of plague) and incorporate
migration on varying spatial scales (between city bolcks,
between different cities, states, countries, etc.). We will
present some preliminary analytical and numerical results
and end with a series of interesting and important open mathematical
questions.